Design and assembly of a Stewart platform

One of the present research focuses within the MechatronicSystems.Group is unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). To this end, a Stewart Platform is required to facilitate testing autonomous landing on a moving platform.

The Stewart platform consists of six actuators that collectively can set an arbitrary position and orientation of a rigid body within the platform’s workspace. This type of platform is to be used to emulate the motion of a sea vessel during rough sea states.

This project will require the student(s) to research, design, construct, and test Stewart platform. This will include:

• Researching current solutions
• Detailed CAD design of the physical structure
• Manufacture and refinement of the platform
• Software design to command motors to set platform pose
• Preliminary testing of the system

The ideal candidate(s) will have strong CAD and design ability, and also be comfortable with determining and using forward/inverse kinematics.

Supervisor: Arnold Pretorius